Gyges

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Eglon van der Neer : The wife of Kandaules discovers the hidden Gyges.

Gyges ( Greek  Γύγης ) was a historically documented, also legendary king of Lydia in Asia Minor , which he presumably lived from 680 BC. BC to 644 BC Ruled. He is considered the founder of the Mermnaden dynasty , which went down five generations later with the also legendary King Croesus .

The mythical story of his seizure of power has been handed down by various ancient authors - in some very different versions. In particular, the variant of Plato , in which Gyges rises from simple shepherd to Lydian king with the help of a magic ring, has been widely used in literary terms from ancient times to modern times.

The historical Gyges

Gyges, who is known as a tyrant because of his irregular takeover of power , came from the Lydian- speaking Mermnaden, whose origin is uncertain. By marrying the wife of his predecessor, Kandaules , who had been murdered by him , he achieved the Lydian rule. During his reign he waged war against the Ionian cities of Miletus and Smyrna , as well as conquered the city of Colophon , but otherwise, according to Herodotus, “did not perform any great deeds”. He also many of its ionic and Carian subjects have as mercenaries to the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus I sold. As a result, he became almost proverbially rich, which is why he displayed his wealth through numerous consecration gifts to the oracle of Delphi .

The Kimmerer , an Indo-European equestrian people, whom he faced with chariots and Ionian mercenaries fighting in phalanxes , threatened his rule. Gyges therefore turned to the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal for protection , to whom he submitted and paid tribute. The advance of the Kimmerer then subsided, but increased again massively when Gyges broke away from the vassalage of Assurbanipal. They conquered the Lydian capital of Sardinia after Gyges had opposed them in vain with an army and was killed in the process. The Mermnaden dynasty he founded remained in power, but his son and successor Ardys could only rule as a vassal of the Assyrians.

The early mentions

Greek

In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer mentions a lake of Gyga on the banks of which the kings of Lydia are said to have been buried. This lake is located northwest of Sardis. The name of the lake suggests the name of a nymph Gygaia who was worshiped there.

In his Theogony, Hesiod describes a group of three giants, the Hekatoncheiren (Hundred Handlers), one of which is called Gyes or Gyges. These three giants are the sons of the earth goddess Gaia or Ge. In addition, Hesiod tells of a whole race of giants, the giants. The Greek word for giant gigas corresponds in its consonant structure to the name Gyges.

The Greek poet Archilochos alludes to Gyges' proverbial wealth. According to Herodotus, Archilochus also wrote “an iambic trimeter ” about his seizure of power , but nothing of this can be found in the poet's surviving fragments.

These earliest mentions understandably led research to even consider relegating Gyges entirely to the realm of mythology.

Assyrian and Old Testament

In the annals of Ashurbanipal Gyges emerged as GUGGU, King of Luddu on. He had sent two Gimirri (Kimmerer) chiefs captured to Nineveh and sought an alliance with Assyria. Shortly afterwards, Assurbanipal notes that Guggu was killed by a Scythian invasion . He considers this a just punishment for his infidelity. Whether this is alluding to support for the rebellious Egyptian king Psammetich I , as is suspected in research, appears to be questionable, since Psammetich (according to Herodotus) only had Ionic and Carian mercenaries available. Such an alliance is, however, attested to later (under Kroisos and Amasis). In this context, Ashurbanipal mentions the Egyptian king Pijamilk. But this does not have to refer to Psammetich, since it is called nothing else than King Pije. Such a king is actually attested in the 25th Nubian dynasty, but 100 years earlier.

According to Assurbanipal, the Cimmerians were under the leadership of a certain Dugdamme . This was equated by the orientalist Sayce with the Greek form of the name Lygdamis.

Some Old Testament scholars also associate Gog von Magog , who is mentioned in Ezekiel , with Gyges. There is also a resemblance to the story of David and Bathsheba told in the books of Samuel.

The three classic stories

Herodotus

According to Herodotus (Hist. I, 8-13) , he seized power by killing King Kandaules - whom the Greeks call Myrsilos , a descendant of Herakles : he had fallen in love with his own wife and his loyal bodyguard Gyges exuberantly tells of its extraordinary beauty. Gyges did n't want to hear about it out of shame , so Kandaules forced him to secretly watch his wife dressing. However, Gyges recognized this when he snuck out of the room and forced him - since he had seen her naked - the next day to decide either to die at the hand of her loyal servant or to kill the king and make her wife to take. Gyges chose life and kingship. His rule was confirmed by a saying by the oracle of Delphi , so that he was finally recognized by the followers of Kandaules. Out of gratitude, he also made donations to the Greek sanctuary of Delphi , which had confirmed him as King of the Lydians. These gifts were placed in the Corinthian treasury and were called Gygadas . Gyges waged war against neighboring Greek cities such as Colophon , Magnesia , Miletus and Smyrna . Herodotus also knows, like Homer, Lake Gyga and the burial mounds of the Lydian kings on it.

Xanthos

According to the story of Xanthos the Lydian passed down by Nikolaos of Damascus , Gyges came to the court of King Adyattes at the age of 18. There he impressed with his riding and weapon skills, so that Adyattes accepted him in his bodyguard. Gyges was able to dispel the king's initial distrust by performing even the most difficult of tasks. Adyattes began to favor Gyges, which aroused envy among the other bodyguards. One of them, Lixos from the family of the Tylonids, shouted in Sardis "under the mask of madness" that Gyges wanted to kill the king. Adyattes paid no heed to it, however.

A short time later, King Adyattes wanted to marry Princess Tudo, daughter of King Arnossus. She lived in the town of Ardynion near Thebes , and so the king had sent Gyges to fetch her in a cart. On the day Gyges was about to leave for Sardis with her, two eagles sat down on the bridal chamber, which the fortune-tellers interpreted to mean that Tudo would be the bride of two kings on the first night.

On the trip Gyges harassed the future Queen Tudo, who defended herself. In Sardis she reported the events to Adyattes, who thereupon ordered Gyges to be killed. A palace slave, who overheard this, warned Gyges, who then stormed the king's apartments with his followers and killed him. He then had all courtiers who he thought were hostile to him killed. A little later he called a popular assembly of Lydians to proclaim himself as the new king. The population was initially appalled by the death of King Adyattes, but did not dare to revolt in view of the Gyges' armed followers. The usurper had his rule confirmed by the Delphic Oracle and took Tudo as his wife.

Plato

According to Plato ( Politeia II, 359b-360d) Gyges used an invisible ring both to see the queen and to gain power. It should be noted that the father name of Gyges (Daskylos) and Ring (Daktylios) are very similar in Greek. Plato tells that Gyges as a simple shepherd (see also Attis , Paris ...) discovered a cave one day in a crevice that had formed after an earthquake, in which he found a hollow horse made of bronze and in it again a superhuman corpse from whose finger he pulled a ring. When he turned this ring, it became invisible. At the royal court he seduced the queen with the help of this ring, killed the king and usurped the rule. For Plato, Gyges does not belong to the king's immediate environment, as his hetairos , but is a simple shepherd.

Hellenism

Alexandrian chronography

The scholars at the Museion in Alexandria were interested in the question of when Gyges actually reigned, because they wanted to date Homer, Hesiod and Archilochus with it. Little has been preserved of their attempts at dating.

Daniel and Susanna

In Alexandria the books of the Old Testament were translated into Greek. The result is what is known as the Septuagint . In addition to the Ezekiel passages by Gog from Magog, which were not related to Gyges, there was also a story in the book of Daniel about Susanna in the bath , who is harassed by several men.

Imperial times

Two completely different versions of the narrative developed probably in Alexandria. According to one, power in Lydia lay with the queen and she decided who her husband should be and expressed this by handing over her insignia of power. After the other, the queen was first brought to the court of Sardis. The first version can be found in Ptolemy Chennos, Plutarch and Hygin. The second version is found particularly in Nikolaos of Damascus.

Greek

According to the geographer Strabo , the Kimmerer under Lygdamis are said to have conquered the lower town of Sardis.

Nikolaos wrote an extensive world history around the turn of the ages in which he is said to have used Xanthos. This is not entirely undisputed in research. Excerpts of the text of his world history have only been preserved from the time of Emperor Konstantinos Porphyrogennetus.

At the time of the Flavians , Josephus wrote several works on Jewish history, in which he alludes to a story known to him in which Solomon is said to have owned the ring and thus controlled the demons .

The Oxyrhynchos Fragment

In Oxyrhynchos , Egypt , a papyrus fragment was found on which there is part of a Hellenistic, dramatic arrangement. Edgar Lobel , editor of the 23rd volume of the Oxyrhynchos papyri, thought of Phrynichos as a possible author. Whether this play goes back to the beginning of the fifth century BC is disputed in research. It was even considered that it was not a play at all, but rather a story of verse.

Ptolemy Chennos, Plutarch, Eusebius and the seal of Solomon

The story of the ring is expanded by the imperial mythographer Ptolemaios Chennos to the effect that the ring is said to have been in the possession of the queen who, with his help, saw the Gyges hidden behind the bedroom door and is said to have given him the ring in order to be able to with his help To kill King Kandaules. This version has been handed down by Photios and Tzetzes .

According to Plutarch , Gyges used Carian mercenaries under the leadership of Arselis of Mylasa when he came to power and owed his power to an Amazon ax stolen from Kandaules , which had been inherited from his ancestors Omphale and Heracles. Plutarch also knows the gifts of Gyges exhibited in Delphi, but Pausanias no longer mentions them.

The Christian chronograph Eusebius lists Gyges in his chronicle, but, unlike Herodotus, gives him 36 years of reign and lets him from 699 to 663 BC. To rule.

The story of Solomon's demon-ruling ring, only mentioned by Josephus, is fully developed in a Christian story under the title The Seal of Solomon or Solomon's Testament .

Latin

Cicero 's story about the ring found its way into Latin literature. In his philosophical work De officiis he gives a Latin version of Plato's story.

Pliny mentions in his natural history that the Phrygian king Midas is also said to have owned the ring.

The imperial mythographer Hyginus also mentions the magic ring in several places in his work. However, he does not associate it with Gyges, but only mentions its manufacture from a snake from the Sangarios river in Phrygia by Heracles , who inherited the ring through Omphale in the Lydian royal family.

In the historical work of Pompeius Trogus , which is preserved in the short version of Justin , Gyges is essentially described after Herodotus. Only a minor change is made to the moral rating.

The story of Solomon and his ring found its way into the Jewish Talmud .

Byzantine and Arabic texts

Suda

The Byzantine lexicon Suda also knows the history of the ring, but only in Plato's version, without the additions by Ptolemy Chennos.

In a thousand and one nights

The basic structure of the Aladin fairy tale is very similar to the Gyges story. A poor craftsman swings himself up to be king with the help of a magical utensil (here a lamp). As with Plato, he finds this utensil in a previously closed cave. He watches the king's daughter on the way to the bath and there when she is taking off her veil. The path to the throne is through the female line. The first man with whom the king's daughter is to be united is this time not the ruling king, but the son of his vizier. But he is prevented from enjoying the wedding night, which he spends shivering from the cold in a storage room. A comparison with Gunther's wedding night in the Nibelungenlied is obvious, where Siegfried (also disguised) intervenes.

Modern processing of the material

Even Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient cited the substance at a central location.

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Aristotle , Rhetoric p. 418 b = 28 Archilochos fragment 22 Diehl :
    οὔ μοι τὰ Γύγεω τοῦ πολυχρύσου μέλει,
    οὐδ 'εἷλέ πώ με ζῆλος, οὐδ' ἀγαίομαι
    θεῶν ἔργα, μεγάλης δ 'οὐκ ἐρέω τυραννίδος ·
    ἀπόπροθεν γάρ ἐστιν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐμῶν.
    "I am not attracted by the treasure of the gold-shimmering Gyges, I have never been envious, I am not attracted by the work of gods, I do not strive for a broad ruling power: All these things are far from my eyes."
  2. ↑ a b Hdt. I, 12.
  3. ↑ a b Hdt. I, 14.
  4. ↑ Assurbanipal Prisma A II 111ff .; Diod. I, 66, cf. Hdt. II, 152.
  5. ↑ Sappho fr. 16 (Voigt).
  6. ↑ Assurbanipal Prism E
  7. ↑ Str. XIV 1.40 quoting Kall. fr. 3 (G.-P.).
  8. ↑ Assurbanipal Prisma A II 18ff.
  9. ↑ FGrHist No. 90, fr. 44-46.
  10. ^ P. Oxy. 2382.
  11. ↑ Edgar Lobel : A Greek Historical Drama . In: Proceedings of the British Academy. Vol. 35, 1949, pp. 207-216.
  12. ↑ Most recently Roger Travis: The Spectation of Gyges in P. Oxy. 2382 and the Herodotus Book 1. In: Classical Antiquity. Vol. 19, No. 2, 2000, pp. 330-359, doi : 10.2307 / 25011124 .
  13. ↑ Suda , keyword Γύγου δακτύλιος , Adler number: gamma 473 , Suda-Online
  14. ↑ Soeren Voima : Origin of the World (uncorrected version). (PDF; 36 kB) (No longer available online.) Henschel Schauspiel Theaterverlag Berlin GmbH, 2011, archived from the original on June 10, 2015 ; Retrieved October 7, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.henschel-schauspiel.de
  15. ^ Rüdiger Heinze: Theater: Politically incorrect to the "origin of the world" of Islam. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. April 15, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013 .

literature

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predecessor Office successor
Kandaules King of Lydia Ardys II
personal data
SURNAME Gyges
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Lydia
DATE OF BIRTH 8th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 7th century BC Chr.